Forty-two percent of California s forests and rangelands are privately owned (34 million acres). These lands provide important ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, pollination and wildlife habitat, but little is known about the people who own and manage them. We surveyed forest and rangeland owners in California and found ...

The California strawberry industry is highly dependent on soil fumigation to control soil pests and maintain high productivity. Plastic films are used to hold fumigants in the soil at the doses needed to control pests and to prevent the loss of fumigant. Totally impermeable film (TIF) was compared to standard ...

The discovery and temporal persistence of xanthic phenotypes are reported for an isolated population of the twoline pupfish Cyprinodon bifasciatus, a species endemic to the Cuatro Cienegas basin, Mexico. During four observations over a 19 mo period, the Escobedita population of C. bifasciatus was found to harbor a low but ...

We report the Silver Lamprey (Ichthyomyzon unicupis) from Arkansas for the first time. Fifteen adult I. unicuspis attached to paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) were collected in Apr. 2005 from the White River near the confluence of the Black River, Independence and Jackson counties. Twelve (80%) of the I. unicuspis possessed 3 ...

Collections of the earwigfly, Merope tuber Newman (Mecoptera: Meropeidae), have been sparse. Little is known about the life history, behavior or ecology of this elusive mecopteran species. Found only in North America, within eastern forests, increased trapping records have recently demonstrated a previously undetected western expansion for this species. This ...

Resident fish exhibited higher short-term resiliency than did non-resident fish to a 100 y flood in a low-gradient stream. In Jun. 2008, a substantial flood (400% higher than mean daily discharge) occurred in the Big Manistee River watershed in Michigan. Pre- and post-flood fish communities were sampled at two sites ...

Riparian sign surveys near bridge crossings are commonly used to detect the presence of river otters. However, the efficacy of using such surveys for determining river otter presence has not been evaluated relative to habitat conditions. We conducted surveys to detect latrines (locations where scats are deposited in riparian areas) ...

Raccoon ecology is poorly understood in bottomland hardwood systems, despite the fact that bottomland forest.s are considered high-quality raccoon habitat. We radio-marked 41 raccoons during 2008-2009 and estimated seasonal space use and habitat selection in a bottomland hardwood forest located within the Atchafalaya floodway system in Louisiana. Space use varied ...

Species that undergo range expansions often exhibit a loss of genetic diversity in populations found at the leading edge of the expansion and show a genetic signal of isolation by distance. We examined the genetic consequences of range expansion on Whitewinged Dove populations, a species that is undergoing a range ...

Fish species from temperate climates exhibit seasonal variation in reproduction triggered by abiotic variables such as day length and temperature. The sailfin molly Poecilia latipinna occupies habitats in the southern temperate zone in North America, but little is known about seasonal patterns in reproductive parameters such as female egg production ...

The shrimp Macrobrachium ohione (Decapoda, Caridea) was once numerous in the Mississippi River System (MRS) as far north as the Missouri and lower Ohio Rivers but is now abundant only within the lower Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. Adult M. ohione live and breed in fresh water, but larval development occurs ...

Zebra mussel presence and lake water calcium concentrations were compared to determine if a calcium concentration threshold exists which might preclude colonization of zebra mussels in Michigan inland lakes. The shallow littoral zones of nine northern Michigan inland lakes with calcium concentrations near 28.3 mg/L and considered to have had ...

Foraging behavior of snails is affected by competition and risk of predation, both of which can be detected by chemical cues in the water. Freshwater snails are able to detect and respond to kairomones, from predators, and chemical cues, such as alarm cues, from other snails. Invasive species, such as ...

Exotic earthworm species that have traditionally been used for composting are purportedly intolerant of low temperatures, which may explain why they are rarely found outside of compost bins in temperate zones of North America. In contrast, numerous exotic European earthworm species have invaded previously earthworm-free temperate forests of North America ...

Since European colonization and subsequent commercialization of Appalachian medicinal and edible plants, millions of kilograms of plant material have been extracted from our forests, with little effort to manage these species as natural resources. Roots and rhizomes of black cohosh, a native Appalachian forest herb, are extensively harvested for treatment ...

Due to the paucity of long-term fire chronologies in the upper Midwest, we studied basal cross-sections dating back to 1822 and the impacts of recent fire suppression in pine and oak stands on the Menominee Indian Reservation in northeast Wisconsin. A total of 93 fire events with a fire-return interval ...

The ability of species to establish and persist in multiple habitats is of increasing importance given ecotone shifts following climate change. We examined a sedge (Carex blanda) that primarily occurs in woodlands in Kansas but is reported at low frequency in grasslands. At a Kansas, USA site, we found C ...

Prairie restorations are increasingly common throughout the central United States. However, we continue to have little information about which planted species become successfully established, or about the factors potentially limiting establishment. We used a combination of site surveys, field tests and germination testing to examine these issues. We surveyed thirty ...

Native grass conservation buffers established for grassland birds require periodic disturbance, but disturbance of vegetation and soil may increase abundance and activity of imported fire ants (Solenopsis sp.). This is a concern because fire ants are invasive, often respond positively to disturbance and can be a major cause of nest ...

The diversity of ground beetles in relation to habitat type was investigated in west-central Illinois from May to Oct. 2005 and 2006 using pitfall traps in six habitats: (1) prairie burned in 2004, (2) prairie burned in 2005, (3) early successional forest, (4) oakhickory forest burned in 2004, (5) oak-hickory ...

Important life history traits of animals may parallel those of their food sources, a factor that plays out at multiple trophic levels, potentially influenced by sexual and temporal variation. Here I evaluate the role of three variables in a system featuring a pair of alternative host plants, a herbivore, and ...

By using cytogenetic analysis of larval polytene chromosomes from small samples of the Simulium arcticum complex of black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) at the Coeur d'Alene River in northern Idaho in 2004 and 2005 we discovered a population that consisted of individuals having sex chromosomes characteristic of S. saxosum, S. arcticum ...